Tanzania Invites Tenders for Africa’s Fourth-Biggest Hydro Plant

DAR ES SALAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzania invited bids for the construction of a $2 billion hydro-power plant that will rank as the fourth-biggest in Africa.

The proposed Stiegler’s Gorge Project will be built on the Rufiji River in eastern Tanzania with a minimum capacity of 2,100 megawatts, the Energy Ministry said in tender documents emailed from the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on Wednesday. Bids must be submitted by Oct. 16 and the facility is expected to be completed within three years, it said.

“Bidders should note that, to qualify for the contract award, they are required to have a good proven track record of performance in the hydro-power construction industry,” with minimum annual revenue of $500 million, the ministry said. Funding for project is already available, Magufuli said in a statement on Aug. 28, without providing details.

Tanzania is boosting spending on infrastructure as part of President John Magufuli’s pledge when he came to power two years ago to industrialize the agriculture-dependent economy. Projects worth at least $19 billion have been proposed, including an oil pipeline linking the port town of Tanga to oilfields in Uganda and an upgrade to its main port in Dar es Salaam.

In February, the government chose Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi Insaat VE Sanayi As and Portuguese building firm Mota-Engil SGPS SA to build a railway at a cost of more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to connect the East African country with landlocked neighbours

The Stiegler’s Gorge facility will rank behind Ethiopia’s under-construction GERD plant, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s proposed Inga III project and the planned Batoka Gorge dam that will straddle the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, with capacities ranging from 2,400 to 6,450 megawatts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Egypt’s Aswan Power Station has the capacity to produce 2,100 megawatts.